Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good. BLESSED TO LIVE IN THE U.S.A.
Presidents day - pray for our president, his cabinet, and all the politicians that they will do right for AMERICA!!!
Today, in John 6: 1-15 we will talk about Jesus feeding the 5,000+. So, let's open our Bibles OR click on the link.
Well, as chapter six begins Jesus crossed over to the far side of the
Sea of Galilee also known as the Sea of Tiberias. Because of the
miracles HE had done a crowd was following Him. Jesus went to a hill,
sat down with His disciples around Him and this time of year the
Passover was almost there. The setting is close to Bethsaida, a town
only about 9 miles away and where Philip was from.
As the crowd approached Jesus asked, "
Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?"
By asking this Jesus already knew the answer, but He is testing His
disciples to see how strong their faith was. Philip looks up, and
basically says if we had a over a half a years wages each person would
only get a little to eat.
By asking this Jesus will be able
to accentuate the power of his next coming miracle. Philip looked at
this situation and addressed it from a man's standpoint, not from a
spiritual advantage point. Jesus is probably trying to teach His
disciples that we may limit what God does by assuming what is and is not
possible.
Then Andrew speaks up, maybe he had a little more
insight, who knows?? He says, here is a boy with 5 barley loafs and 2
fish. Now from a man's standpoint, from a merely human position this is
just plain ignorant to think this would be enough. Now, maybe this
little boy with the fish and barley brought all he had believing, who
knows? (yes, God knows) But he was there for the upcoming miracle.
Once Andrew says this what does Jesus do? Jesus says, "
Make the men sit down."
So, 5,000 men sat down, not counting women and children. What does
Jesus do next, say come and get it? No, no, no! Jesus knows of the
miracle that is about to happen and does what we all should do daily and
each time we sup. He broke the bread and gave thanks to God; then He
did likewise with the fish. There was no doubt in Jesus' mind this
would feed everyone as God would not let the bread or fish run out until
all were fed.
After everyone ate, no, NO, the Bible does not say this. The Bible
tells us that after everyone was FULL, not just a snack, or a little
bit, but all were FULL. Different translations will say filled, all
they could eat, etc. but it all means FULL.
Okay, now pay attention to this. From 5 barley loafs and 2 fish the
disciples picked up 12 baskets of leftovers. What? All of this from so
little? YES, when God is involved we should expect to see more. As
Sid Roth says, with God the supernatural is natural. Oh, so true!
A couple of lessons here. One the young boy with the barley loafs and
fish. We are never too young or too old to be used by God, we just need to be available.
Lesson number two, God gives in abundance. Whatever we give Him,
time, ability, or resources, HE multiplies its effectiveness beyond our
wildest expectation.
We have to take the first step, the step in making ourselves available
to God. Then HE will show you how greatly you can be used to advance the
work of his Kingdom.
The people said this is the Prophet we have been expecting (Moses prophesied this in Deuteronomy 18: --
15
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him.
Jesus could see that the people were ready to take Him by force and
make Him king, the time was yet to come, so He slipped away to a
mountain alone. Another lesson here, sometimes we need to get away, be
alone, and just have a conversation with God.
Hey, I thought this was a great lesson today and looking forward to
tomorrow when Peter identifies Jesus as the Christ. Love you all.
In Christ's Love and Grace
Johnny
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